(g) The advantages of diversified work as contrasted with the tedium and repetitive nature of the type of work frequently performed by the factory and office worker. For the employer-sponsor: (a) Considerable relief from the excessive burdens of the mother and homemaker whose responsibilities are a composite of the occupations of cook, nurse, taxi driver, houseworker, laundress, gardener, and teacher, not to mention those inherent in her relationship to her husband as wife, partner, amanuensis, and confidant. (b) The provision of proper supervision for the children of working mothers. (c) The provision of a higher degree of security in terms of safety, precautions for health, relief from undue confinement within the household, and at least a modicum of leisure time. (d) The inspirational benefit of working with and contributing to the training of another person. (e) The opportunity to pursue a profession, avocation, or such interests as art, literature, volunteer, church, and social work which constitute a creative outlet for the individual. I would simply like to say that the reason I am here today is because I have heard so much about unemployment. This issue of the U.S. News & World Report is very timely. It has an article about jobs and says that 1 out 10 Negroes and 1 out of 20 whites are unemployed, mostly unskilled teenagers and unskilled workers. I have been thinking about this a great deal and know the need for new jobs. For many, many years there has been a desperate need for assistance in the home. We used to call these people domestic servants. They are not called that any more. I do not wish to label them as such. This profession has been downgraded and many of us women-I am a mother of 6 children have struggled over many, many years to do what it took to try to keep the home together and keep our health. So putting 2 and 2 together, it seemed to me, that we can create a good 2 or 3 million jobs in this category, if it is properly done. PHILOSOPHY AND GENERAL REMARKS This hypothesis is based upon the premise that there is no more significant or revered career than that of mother and homemaker, and, unfortunately, such a career on a paid basis has become undesirable in our present-day society. The home, or family unit, is the keystone of our democratic society. The sole individual who makes a home is the wife and mother. Hers, today, is the prime responsibility for the future of this country, for she is the molder of the men and women of tomorrow. This is a responsibility not to be taken lightly, and young women march daily into marriage with little or no preparation. There is no concerted effort made in this country to provide young people with preparation for parenthood. It is not uncommon to see the young mother-and often the not-soyoung mother-of today a harried, distraught, weary, and frustrated individual. No matter what her background or education, she requires and deserves rest, quiet, recreation, and leisure time in order to maintain her mental and physical health. In the majority of households, these minimum requirements of daily living are not available to her. Often the result is a mental or physical breakdown of a varying degree of seriousness which can produce a chain of events leading to an unhappy or broken marriage, and high-strung children who are often emotionally unstable. Such an environment can lead the children into delinquency and/or an unhappy adulthood, fraught with instability. Automation will never supersede the housewife and mother. Duties can be streamlined, but nothing can take the place of a pair of loving hands and a loving and understanding heart. As is well known, the concept of domestic service has been downgraded in dignity and prestige. In fact, the full-time household servant is becoming virtually extinct. This is occurring in an age when the size of families is increasing, although I read today it is decreasing, and the grandmother or maiden aunt is no longer available or interested in giving assistance. Also of considerable moment is the plight of the elderly and the infirm in a society which no longer commands day-by-day care from the nearest of kin, and in which the number of elderly citizens is rapidly increasing. The express intent would be to launch a campaign to glamorize the job of homemaker. This can be embarked upon with forthright honesty and integrity, without deceit or attempts to delude or mislead. It is also a reasonable hope that a rewarding byproduct of such a program will be to tend to diminish the class barriers and lines of artificial social demarcation which, although lessening more and more in recent years, are basically incompatible with the free democratic society toward which most Americans aspire. Much today is written and spoken of unemployment and the attendant problems adherent to our society because of it. To recognize a problem is to attempt to solve it. It is the considered opinion of many that there is a crying need for service in the home. There are thousands of women of deprived groups who are eminently qualified to be homemakers. Ethnic groups such as Negro and Puerto Rican are known to be kindly and good to children, the old, the infirm. A point to consider is that many Americans are unable to compete with present academic standards and it is our responsibility for economic and social reasons to provide jobs instead of handouts. It is respectfully submitted that the program suggested above may go a long way toward solving the current problems of unemployment. Senator TOWER. Thank you very much, Mrs. Burnham. Counsel, do you have any questions that you would like to ask? Senator TOWER. Thank you very much, Mrs. Burnham, for your eloquent testimony. We are grateful for you coming here today. Mrs. BURNHAM. Thank you, sir. Senator TOWER. The next witness this morning is Mr. Robert Bondy, of the National Social Welfare Assembly. Mr. Bondy, we are glad to have you here this morning. We appreciate your coming down to testify before our subcommittee. STATEMENT OF ROBERT E. BONDY, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SOCIAL WELFARE ASSEMBLY Mr. BONDY. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, my name is Robert E. Bondy, and I am director of the National Social Welfare Assembly. The assembly was organized in 1945 as the central national planning and coordinating body for social welfare. Currently the assembly includes 57 national voluntary, nonprofit organizations, 14 agencies of the Federal Government, and 4 associated groups. It is a nonprofit organization supported by contributions from voluntary affiliate national organizations, some 425 local communities through united funds, community chests, and welfare councils, grants from foundations, and gifts from business, industry, and individuals. With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I wish to file with your subcommittee a copy of a report entitled "Position Statement on National Service Corps," adopted by the executive committee of the assembly January 15, 1963. Senator TOWER. There being no objection, we will include that statement in the record. Mr. BONDY. The following statement from the report summarizes the assembly position: The National Social Welfare Assembly believes that a National Service Corps, under certain conditions, can make significant contributions to the welfare, health, and education services of the Nation. At this time, Mr. Chairman, may I say that the assembly believes the following to be potential contributions of a National Service Corps operated under appropriate conditions: Modest expansion of existing welfare, health, and education services, and the provision of new services within the possibilities of the number of corpsmen, their competency, and the funds available. Demonstration of a new and unique concept of service: The voluntary investment of a year of service to people as a personal, social, and civic responsibility, with remuneration at only subsistence level. This is important in itself, but is not to be confused with the voluntary service without remuneration of millions of men and women in service through voluntary organizations, and in connection with many of the services of Government. Extra visibility given by the program to human need and community responsibility. The National Service Corps project, if well done and appropriately dramatized, could act as a catalytic force a yeast— in extending and strengthening needed voluntary and Government services to people. Opportunity for young adults to explore their interest in, and aptitude for, continuing service to people either as a career professional or as a volunteer. In the fields of welfare, health, and education, there is great need for more professionally educated personnel and more volunteers. I think it clear, and generally understood, that one of the great needs of the country today is more professionally trained people in the so-called helping professions: medicine, nursing, social welfare, and other related fields. The Congress has done much to support pro grams of training, and the strengthening of schools, in some of these professional fields, as in the case of medical schools. The last point here is the opportunity for retired persons to use their knowledge, skill, and accumulated experience in services to meet the pressing needs of people. Accomplishment of these goals would be an important asset to the Nation. Conditions under which these goals are most likely to be achieved include clarity in regard to basic concepts of human service, good programing in each project, and sound safeguards in the operation. May I make certain observations with respect to S. 1321 as it relates to the assembly position statement. We concur heartily in the broad statement of purposes of the National Service Corps, and in the kinds of projects contemplated, as set forth in the bill. Among the purposes, we particularly emphasize the catalytic values of the program, and the stimulation of young people, after their National Service Corps experience, to seek professional training in social welfare or other of the helping professions. May I now emphasize four points which the assembly considers of great importance to the success of the National Service Corps and which we propose to this committee be incorporated into the bill itself or, if that is not feasible from a drafting standpoint, be incorporated in the committee report to show the intent of the committee. (1) The assembly believes that stimulation of young people to seek training as career professionals should have encouragement by provision in the bill for terminal scholarship funds for participants who apply and are admitted to graduate schools of welfare, health, and education. Unfortunately, the bill does not include provision for this purpose. (2) The assembly also believes that agencies which put forward desirable programs, but which have serious staff shortages, should receive funds to insure availability of qualified profressional supervision. For example, a hospital might propose an excellent program but because present staff is overburdened, and because no surplus of funds is available, would be unable to supply necessary supervision to insure a high quality of work experience for the participants and in the interest of the corps. The bill does not provide for allocations to agencies or institutions for this purpose. (3) Both S. 1321 and the assembly position statement call for an Advisory Council. However, there is substantial difference with respect to responsibilities proposed for such a Council. The bill provides that the Advisory Council should "advise and consult with the President with respect to policies and programs designed to further the purposes" of the act. The assembly position statement proposes that the Advisory Council (patterned on Advisory Councils of the National Institute of Mental Health) should "advise and consult with the administrator" of the corps and provides further that "projects selected should be subject to the Advisory Council's approval." This proposal emphasizes the assembly's belief that outstanding citizens, both volunteer and professional, and qualified in public and voluntary service in the fields of welfare, health and education, should be brought into direct and responsible relationship to the operation of the corps. An alternative to specifically giving the Advisory Council project selection authority would be to provide for the establishment of review committees which would take project by project review and selection from the proposals presented by local sponsoring committees or organizations. (4) Coordination and joint planning by a representative local council is essential to the development of the community's pattern of services to people. It is the means by which needs are studied, priorities are identified, programs, services and resources to meet the needs are determined. Projects of the National Service Corps must be an integrated part of joint planning if the service is to become a continuing part of the community's pattern of service to people. Approximately 400 communities across the Nation have established health and welfare community councils. Wherever feasible, these councils should be asked to assume primary responsibility for the study, evaluation and recommendation of projects. For instance, in the chairman's home State there are such councils in the principal cities of the State-Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Fort Worth, El Paso, and so on, and in a number of the gulf cities. This is illustrative of the way in which such banding together of citizens for selecting out what is best for the community is carried out throughout the Nation. Where the established health and welfare council or the community council is unable to assume this responsibility or where a council does not exist, a special planning committee broadly representative of community or area interest should be created. Among the more important aspects of the proposed program will be the selection of projects. It will be important that criteria for selection of projects be developed. To this end, the following criteria are suggested: (1) Is the service proposed to meet a serious need which cannot be met without the National Service Corps? (2) Is the service requested by the local community? Or is the need such that interest can and should be stimulated? (3) Is the proposed service an integrated part of the coordinated community plan for service to people? (4) Is the service designed to help the community increase its competence to help itself? (5) Is the proposed service accessible to all persons on a basis of nondiscrimination? (6) Is there a broadly representative committee of local persons available to cooperate with the National Service Corps? (7) What counterpart efforts is the sponsor prepared to make? (8) Is the project so designed that necessary services can be continued as the national service phases out? (9) Does the project give promise of demonstrating a service replicable in other communities? Mr. Chairman, that word "replicable" is in the dictionary. It was in our report and when I read my testimony over I thought it was a typographical error. But there is such a word. It obviously means, can it be carried over into other situations. I respectfully commend to your attention, Mr. Chairman, and members of the subcommittee, the position statement filed with the sub |